Sunday, November 17, 2013

Texas Stars Earn Point in Ten-Round Shootout Loss to Toronto

In the Stars' first shootout of the season, the home team Toronto Marlies ended up victorious after ten rounds of back and forth scoring. Texas ceded two one-goal leads to end up at a tie score of two after sixty minutes.

Justin Dowling collected his first of the year and Maxime Fortunus put in a goal in his first game back from injury. Texas was 1/6 on the power play and had a perfect 4/4 effort on the penalty kill. Cristopher Nilstorp stopped 28 of 30 shots in the game and 7 of 10 in the shootout.

The Stars opened the scoring with Justin Dowling's first goal of the year early in the first period. Having been snakebitten thus far on the year, Dowling's goal from Jokipakka and Gaunce was his first since the 2013 playoffs. Later in the period, Jamie Devane found himself in the penalty box for the Marlies. Devane bolted out of the box and evened up the score just 24 seconds after his penalty.

Texas closed up the scoring in the period on the power play. The league's top ranked power play continued their scoring ways as Maxime Fortunus scored in his first game back from injury. Texas initially had a full 120 seconds of 5-on-3 on tap but lost that advantage when Brendan Ranford took an interference call. With a 4-on-3 manpower edge, the Stars' captain blasted a puck over Drew McIntyre from above the circles. Chris Mueller got the only assist on the power play. The four man unit that scored the goal featured three forwards, essentially the top line plus Fortunus. [Ed. Note: The Stars' second goal was changed to McKenzie from Fortunus and Mueller after the game.]

Toronto dominated the second period on shots and got the period's only goal. Korbinian Holzer sniped one under Nilstorp's blocker just after a Toronto power play expired. The goal tied the game at two after forty minutes. The Marlies 17-4 shot margin was assisted by three Texas penalties in the period, all by the fourth line.

No penalties and no goals in the third period led to an overtime period for the Marlies and Stars. Jerry D'Amigo crashed the net late in the OT period to take a goaltender interference call and set Texas on the power play. It was an unsuccessful bid for the Stars, leaving Texas to settle the game in the shootout.

Spencer Abbott faked left and went right to score in the first round of the shootout. Brett Ritchie tied it up in the fifth round with a water bottle popping shot and sent things to a 6th round. John-Michael Liles slid one in on Nilstorp five hole in the seventh round, only to be answered by Brendan Ranford's first pro shootout goal.

The tenth round saw another rookie score his first professional shootout goal, except this time it was Toronto's Sam Carrick with the goal. Petersen could not answered back and the final was set at 3-2.